They walked for several minutes, and were far enough in that almost no light from the entrance was still visible behind them, when they came to something unusual.
“What is that?” Batu asked.
“I don’t know,” Karliss replied. They made their way closer. They’d reached the back of the cave, but it didn’t look right. It looked far too smooth and regular to be natural. Karliss brushed some of the dirt away. “Look at this,” he said.”
Where he’d wiped they could see some kind of stone that was black, glossy, and very smooth. It looked almost like glass, but it was opaque and it reflected the light from their torches as if it had been polished.
“I’ve never seen stone like that,” Batu said.
All three of them began brushing dirt away. In a few minutes they’d exposed the whole wall. All of it was the same black, glossy stone and it was slightly rounded. Set into the middle of the wall was a strange-looking metal wheel. The metal was not rusted at all. Dimly they could see the outline of a door, with the wheel in the center of it.
“The story didn’t say anything about this,” Batu mused.
“I’m starting to think old Unegen left some parts out,” Hulagu said.
“Open it,” Batu said.
Karliss pushed on the door. Nothing happened.
“Try turning the wheel,” Batu suggested.
“Why don’t you turn it?” Karliss replied.
“We’re just the worshippers. You do the hard parts. We watch. Maybe take cover if it looks dangerous.”
“He’s right,” Hulagu said. “You’re the hero here after all.”
At first the wheel wouldn’t budge, but then it gave and began to turn smoothly. A series of clicks accompanied the movement. When the wheel stopped turning, he pushed and the door opened quietly. Beyond was empty blackness. Karliss stuck his torch through the doorway, but its light was so weak it didn’t reveal anything.
“Go in,” Batu whispered. “We’re right behind you.”
“Great, that makes me feel better,” Karliss whispered back. “Are you sure you don’t want to go first?”
“Nope. The whole worshipper thing. You understand, right?”
Karliss braced himself and stepped through the doorway. When he did a faint glow began to emanate from up ahead. The glow brightened quickly. Karliss blinked against the sudden brightness.
“Where’s the light coming from?” Batu asked.
Karliss was standing in some kind of entrance chamber. Just ahead it opened up into a room. He went in further, until he was at the entrance to the room itself. From there he could see that the walls, floor and ceiling were all made of the same black, glossy stone. The glow was coming from the ceiling and it was bright enough to see well.
“What is it? What do you see?” Batu whispered.
“It’s some kind of room. The light is coming from the ceiling.” Karliss stubbed his torch out. “I don’t think we need these anymore.” He beckoned to them. “Come on in.”
“Is it safe?” Batu asked. He was still outside the door, his eyes very big. Hulagu was beside him. Neither of them looked eager to come in.
“So far,” Karliss said. “I think it’s been empty for a long time.” He passed through into the room. It was fairly large, especially to people who’d grown up living in yurts. It was about thirty paces across and oval-shaped. In the middle of the room was a table with a stool pulled up to it. At least, Karliss thought it was a stool. It wasn’t like any stool he’d ever seen. The stools he was used to were simple and compact, with three legs that folded up for easy storage in the wagons. But this stool had four legs and a back rest. There were also things on the sides which he guessed were for resting your arms on. And it was large and heavy-looking, clearly not meant to be carried around. It was made of some kind of reflective metal, as was the table.
Then he saw that there were some things on the table and he walked over to take a closer look. There were three of them, flat, rectangular metal tablets about two hands wide and roughly twice that long. There was alien writing on them, writing that looked to be the same as the word copied at the bottom of the black scroll. He scanned the tablets and realized with excitement that written on one of them was a word he recognized.
It was the word of power.
He went back over to the entrance. “Come on! You have to see this.”
“I don’t know,” Batu said. “I think someone should go check on the horses.” Then he squawked as Hulagu shoved him through the doorway. “Take it easy,” he complained, catching his balance. “I could have tripped and broken something.”
“You could have stood there until we all died of old age,” Hulagu said, but Karliss realized that he was just as uncomfortable with this as Batu was. He couldn’t blame them. Neither of them had ever seen anything remotely like this. He hadn’t either, of course, but he’d seen stranger things when he spied on Kasai, so this wasn’t quite as much of a shock for him.
Gingerly, the two entered the room and stared around them openmouthed.
“What is this place?” Batu asked.
“Why do you keep asking questions you know he can’t answer?” Hulagu replied.
“He might know. It can’t hurt to ask.”
“I don’t know,” Karliss said, “but it has to be the same place Unegen found. One of these tablets has the word of power on it.”
The other two were still standing rooted in the doorway. Batu was shaking his head. “Come here,” Karliss said. “You can’t see from over there.”
“No, this is good,” Batu said. “Why don’t you get the tablets and we’ll look at them outside?”
“I have to agree with Batu on this one,” Hulagu said. “I see no reason to stay in here any longer than we have to.”
“Leave if you want to,” Karliss said, making a disgusted sound, “but I want to look around.”
“Why?” Batu asked. “You found the tablets. Let’s go.”
“Aren’t you curious what this room is for and who built it?” Karliss asked.
“Not really,” Batu said. Hulagu shook his head.
“Unbelievable,” Karliss said, shaking his head. He went back to the table and looked at the tablets. Each one had a single simple drawing at the top. Under the drawing were three words. The middle tablet was the one with the word of power on it. It was the first word under the drawing.
It looked like he’d done what he set out to do. He’d found the other words of power. Unfortunately, he still had a couple of problems, things he’d put off thinking about before now. One problem was that he didn’t know how to translate the new words. If he couldn’t translate them, he couldn’t use them. In the new words he saw a few letters that he recognized from the one word he did now, but that wasn’t nearly enough to help him understand the whole word.
The other problem was that he didn’t know what the words did. Once before he’d used a word of power without understanding it and someone had gotten killed. These others words might be even more powerful than the one he knew—which he had to hope they were, if they were going to work on Kasai—which meant the potential harm from misusing them was much greater.
He bent over to look closer at the drawings, wondering what they meant. One of the drawings looked like a mountain. Another one looked like waves on water. The third one, the one that had the word of power he already knew on it, was a drawing of a cloud with a lightning bolt. The word of power he knew allowed a person to control aranti, creatures that lived in the sky. Did that mean that the two words below it were almost meant to control aranti?
But did that then mean that the words on the other two tablets were meant to control different kinds of creatures, creatures that lived elsewhere than in the sky? That had to be it. What else made sense? The tablet with the drawing of waves at the top had words of power meant to control creatures that lived in water, while the one with the mountain must have words meant to control creatures that lived underground. He felt his pulse pick up a little in exc
itement.
Were there creatures like the aranti that lived in the water and in the soil? It seemed impossible, but then so did the aranti themselves.
The aranti had told Karliss they were kin to Kasai, yet clearly Kasai was not like them at all. He did not live in the wind as they did. Which meant that he was either a creature of the water or a creature of underground. After seeing Kasai melt stone with a touch, Karliss had to assume that Kasai was a creature of underground. Which meant that the three words on that tablet could be exactly what he needed to fight Kasai.
Now if he could only translate them.
Karliss was vaguely aware that while he was studying the tablets his friends had finally come into the room, but he was so engrossed in his thoughts that he didn’t look up or pay any attention to them until Hulagu said in a strange voice, “You might want to come see this, Karliss.”
Karliss turned. Hulagu was standing frozen by the far wall. In the wall right in front of him was a doorway. Karliss frowned, confused.
“That doorway wasn’t there when I came in,” he said.
“It appeared out of nowhere,” Hulagu said nervously.
“I saw,” Batu said excitedly. “It wasn’t there, and then it was.”
“What did you do?” Karliss asked Hulagu.
“Nothing,” Hulagu replied. “I just walked over here.” He took a step back. When he did, a section of the wall slid over and the doorway was gone. Alarmed, he backed up even further.
“How did that happen?” Batu asked.
“It must be like the lights,” Karliss said. “When I walked in here they came on by themselves. When you walked over to the door it opened by itself.” He walked past Hulagu. When he was a couple of steps from the wall, the door slid open again.
“What is this place?” Batu asked in a hushed whisper. He got a sudden shocked look on his face. “This must be the home of Tung-alk. Think about it. It’s the only thing that makes sense. Only a god could make such a place and we are in the north, where Tung-alk dwells.” Batu had retreated to the entrance and looked about a second away from fleeing.
“I don’t think so,” Karliss said. “I don’t think Tung-alk lives here.”
“But you don’t know,” Batu said.
“If this is Tung-alk’s dwelling,” Hulagu said, backing up even further, “and he catches us here…”
“I don’t think it is,” Karliss repeated. The room on the other side of the doorway was still dark. He badly wanted to know what was in there, but he couldn’t deny that part of him was just as worried about this being Tung-alk’s dwelling as his friends were.
“Who else’s dwelling could it be?” Hulagu asked.
“I don’t know…but I’m going to find out.” And so saying, Karliss walked through the door.
Chapter Eighteen
“No, Karliss!” Batu said, but Karliss ignored him. He’d come too far, risked too much. He wasn’t leaving without knowing.
As he stepped through the doorway, the lights went on in the room. The room he found himself in was smaller than the first one. On the far side of the room, up against the wall, was what looked like another table. It was lower than the table in the first room, only a few inches off the floor.
On the table was a body.
“What do you see?” Hulagu hissed from the other room.
“It’s a body. I think it’s whoever lives here.”
“What?” Batu called from his spot over by the entrance. “You found Tung-alk’s body?”
“It’s someone’s body.”
“Don’t go near it,” Batu cried, even as Karliss started walking toward it. “No! What are you doing? I told you not to go near it!”
Karliss ignored him and kept walking.
“Great,” Batu grumbled. “Now we’re doomed for sure.” He made an irritated noise, then said, “Well, if we’re doomed anyway, I want to see it too.”
“Me too,” Hulagu said.
When Karliss reached the body, he saw right away that whatever it was, it wasn’t human.
The body had clearly been there a very long time. It was mummified, the skin turned to yellowish leather. Whatever clothes it had been wearing had disintegrated to the point that only piles of dust and a few tiny scraps of fabric remained. The lips had withered and pulled back from its mouth, which showed no teeth. Its eye sockets were large, its nose almost nonexistent. It was about the same height as a person, but with a more delicate bone structure. The most noticeable difference was the fact that the being had four arms instead of two.
Hulagu and Batu approached cautiously. “Is that Tung-alk?” Batu asked. “He looks different than I pictured him.”
“Whoever he was, I don’t think he died peacefully,” Hulagu said, pointing.
The torso on one side was crushed inwards.
“Who could be powerful enough to kill a god?” Batu said in awe.
“I don’t think this is Tung-alk. I don’t think it’s a god at all,” Karliss replied.
“But you said one of those tablets in the other room has the word of power on it. The word of power is used to control the spirits,” Hulagu said. “The spirits are the servants of the gods. Why would he have the word of power in his home if he wasn’t a god?”
Karliss looked at his friends. “I’m going to tell you something I’ve never told anyone before. Those things we call spirits? They’re not. They’re aranti. If they are servants of the gods they never speak of it, because I’ve never heard them.” He took a deep breath. “I’ve started to think there are no gods. Or at least not anymore.”
“What?” Batu said. “No spirits? No gods? Are you crazy?”
“Are you sure?” Hulagu asked.
“About the gods? No. But I am sure about the aranti. And now after seeing this place, well, I’m starting to think maybe the aranti were his servants, long ago before he died.”
“He could still be a god,” Batu maintained.
“He might be,” Karliss said. “I guess we’ll never know.”
“God or not, I don’t like being in here. I feel like something bad is going to happen any second,” Batu said. “Can we leave now?”
“Okay,” Karliss said. “But first I need to copy down the words.” He’d gotten a piece of parchment, a quill, and a small bottle of ink from Firehair before leaving the clan.
“What good will that do if you can’t translate them?” Batu asked.
“I don’t know, but at least I’ll have it. I also want to search around some more too. Somehow Unegen was able to translate the one word we have. Maybe he found something here that helped him do that.”
“We can look around while you copy,” Hulagu said.
“Speak for yourself,” Batu said. “Someone needs to go check on the horses.”
“I said, ‘we can look around’,” Hulagu said, grabbing Batu’s arm before he could get away. “We do that while Karliss copies and we can all get out of here sooner.”
“Ouch,” Batu said, giving Hulagu a wounded look. “You don’t have to squeeze my arm so hard. See? I’m staying and agreeing to help you look.”
Karliss went back into the larger room, leaving the other two still arguing. He took out the parchment and laid it on the table. Opening up the ink, he dipped the quill in it and began copying the words. He took his time, wanting to get the strange script as exact as he could. Who knew what detail would be important? He didn’t want to miss anything. It was painstaking work and required a lot of concentration.
He was so engrossed in his task that he lost track of time, so he didn’t know how much later it was when Hulagu came over and tapped him on the shoulder. Karliss blinked and looked up. “What is it?”
“I found another door,” Hulagu said. “I think.”
Karliss followed Hulagu over to the opposite side of the room from the first door he’d found.
“Look here,” Hulagu said. “I think that’s the outline of the door.”
At first Karliss couldn’t see it. It simply looked
like a blank wall to him. But then Hulagu showed him and he was able to make out a faint vertical line. A couple feet away was another. “How come it doesn’t open automatically like the other one?” he asked.
“I don’t know. I tried stepping everywhere.”
“Maybe it doesn’t open because we’re not supposed to go in there,” Batu said. “It could be dangerous. Did you ever think of that?”
“I think we’re past that,” Hulagu said.
Hulagu and Karliss spent the next few minutes trying different things while Batu offered his opinions.
“Try jumping up and down,” he suggested. “Maybe whatever’s in the floor that makes the door open is stuck or something.”
That didn’t work. Neither did pushing on the door or trying to slide it to the side.
“You didn’t find anything else, did you?” Karliss asked.
“Of course we did,” Batu said sarcastically. “We found a magic spear, in fact. Guaranteed to kill Kasai with one blow.”
“We didn’t find anything else,” Hulagu said.
“Then the answer to how Unegen translated the word of power must be in there,” Karliss said. “I’m not leaving until I get in there.”
“Great,” Batu said. “I knew we shouldn’t have told him about it. Now we’re never getting out of here.”
The three of them spent the next hour trying the same things over and over again and nothing they did had the slightest result. Finally, Batu got mad. “It’s hopeless. We’re never getting through this door,” he grumbled, slamming his fist against the wall beside the door.
When he did that, the door suddenly slid open.
Batu jumped back, alarmed. “Did I do that?”
“Nice to know you’re good for something besides complaining,” Hulagu said.
Beyond the door was a passage. The passage led back deeper into the mountainside, then opened up into another room, this one smaller than the other two, less than a dozen paces across.
Sea Born (Chaos and Retribution Book 3) Page 23
